Crucial announces 'Adrenaline' hybrid storage kit with 50GB m4 SSD

Although solid state drives aren't as pricy as they used to be, they're still considered somewhat of a luxury. With some success, manufacturers have attempted to bridge the gap between flash drives and mechanical storage with hybrid solutions such as Intel's Smart Response Technology and Seagate'sMomentus XT drives. Determined to show its rivals how it's done, Crucial has entered the arena with a slightly unique contender that makes it easier to boost the performance of your sluggish hard drive.
The company's new "Adrenaline Solid State Cache" package contains a 50GB m4 SSD, a 3.5-inch adapter and software that caches your most frequently access data. The beauty of this setup is that it doesn't require you to purchase anything other than Adrenaline kit to boost the performance of your existing hard drive. By comparison, the Intel's offering requries an SRT-ready chipset to link cache and storage drives, while the Momentus XT is more of a replacement hard drive with extra cache.
To configure the cache drive, you only have to connect the m4 to your motherboard and power source then boot your machine and install the caching software to link your flash and mechanical drives. The caching application is fully automated, runs in the background and requires no user management, according to Crucial. We haven't seen pricing details, but the m4 occupies the budget end of the market with a 64GB model costing about $110 or $1.72 per gigabyte, about as cheap as you'll find for such a unit. With that in mind, we're hoping the Adrenaline kit is under $90.
Related Posts : adrenaline,Crucial,Momentus XT,solid state drive,srt,SSDPosted byManabharanaat9:51 AMEmail ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookLabels:adrenaline,Crucial,Momentus XT,solid state drive,srt,SSD0comments: Post a Comment

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Crucial Provides a Firmware Update for M4 to Fix The BSOD Issue

by Kristian Vättö on 1/14/2012 3:22:00 PM
Posted in Storage , SSDs , Crucial , m4

Last week, we wrote about the BSOD issue that Crucial's M4 SSDs were experiencing. After 5184 hours (yes, that's the specific number) of active use, the SSD started to cause blue screens of death (i.e. BSODs) every hour or so. Originally, the fix was scheduled for next week but fortunately Crucial was able to release the firmware update yesterday. The firmware version is 0309 and can be downloaded here. It's recommended for all Crucial M4 SSDs, even if you are not experiencing the BSOD issue as it will prevent it from happening. 

The earliest reports indicate that the update does fix the BSOD issue, although it will take at least several days before we can be sure of that. User Vivio at Crucial forums has already run benchmarks and the update appears to be a pure bug fix, as the performance is the same as with the older 0009 firmware (see Anand's review). 

Source: Crucial

Print This Article 11 Comments View All Comments Post a Comment Burning the image file to a USB drive instead of CD by Azsen on Saturday, January 14, 2012 Well I spent about half an hour hunting around for simple instructions to copy the firmware ISO file to a bootable USB drive instead of CD (I don't have any spare CD-Rs around).

Simplest guide was here:
http://www.storagereview.com/how_upgrade_crucial_s... Azsen Reply magic number by DanNeely on Saturday, January 14, 2012 Did they explain why its 5184? That doesn't look like anything special in either minutes, seconds, or days. DanNeely Reply RE: magic number by Meaker10 on Saturday, January 14, 2012 It's to do with a SMART counter apparently. Meaker10 Reply RE: magic number by Lord 666 on Monday, January 16, 2012 In the past couple days, my 256gb with 009 on it started acting very similar to this bug. Checked the hours and I'm in the low 2100s. Going to try this update in a few. Lord 666 Reply Upgraded successfully by Azsen on Saturday, January 14, 2012 Have just upgraded my 128GB M4 successfully. I remember in the previous guide (to update the firmware to v0009) it was saying you needed to put the SATA mode as IDE in the BIOS or it wouldn't work. However this instruction is left out of the latest guide. I wasn't sure if that was intentional or a mistake so I tried putting the drive it in IDE mode anyway but the updater program crashed when detecting the drive, so best to leave it in AHCI mode as that worked fine in the end.

Apparently in the guide it says it won't work if you're using SATA 6GB ports so I had to go into the case and put the cable onto the number 0-3 SATA 3G ports which was a pain.

Anyway all done now. Hopefully in 7 months time I won't be having blue screens. :) Would be interested to hear if it does actually fix the issue from users who are currently having the problem. Azsen Reply works flawless by Soulkeeper on Saturday, January 14, 2012 Burnt the .iso, had the thing booted, and flashed in under 5min.
I love crucial and plextor's easy iso update method, great for non-windows users or people with multiple systems. Soulkeeper Reply RE: works flawless by damianrobertjones on Monday, January 16, 2012 ... but they shouldn't have to do this at all.... In all my life I've NEVER had to update a hard drive until the SSD march damianrobertjones Reply RE: works flawless by GTVic on Monday, January 16, 2012 The newest Intel SSD tools allow you to update virtually all Intel SSDs while running Windows. Burning an ISO is an inconvenience and a waste of a disc in comparison. GTVic Reply RE: works flawless by DanNeely on Monday, January 16, 2012 Patching firmware while a system is live requires a significantly greater degree of either validation; or the writing the entire system in a functional programming language. While Ericson created its own language (Erlang) to allow patching its telecom systems that way; skills in functional programming are very rare outside of academia. DanNeely Reply Didn't work for me by Dug on Monday, January 16, 2012 I was very careful to download the 128GB version of 309, but everytime I try it, it states successful but lists 009. Dug Reply Subject Comment Post Comment Please login or register to post a comment.
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Exclusive: iPad as crucial as Kindle for ebooks, says digital book converter

The multi-talented iPad was just as essential to the rise of the ebook as the dedicated Kindle e-reader, according to one ebook conversion company.

Jouve, which specialises in converting books to digital formats and is one of only two Apple approved conversion houses for the iBookstore, reckons that both devices were equally important to digital reading's success, despite the low-cost Kindle's specialisation.

When asked which device had greater impact on the take up of ebooks, Jouve President and CEO Pierre-Vincent Debatte said, "I hate to say it, but I'm going to have to sit on the fence regarding this issue."

"I'd have to argue that it's a combination of the two devices which has really spurred on the growth in ebook sales."

Comfy fence

"There was always going to be a tipping point that was reached when affordable tablets, reader and multifunction devices allowed customers to take their whole collection of books with them in one practical device," he continued.

"Sony was one of the early leaders in the ebook world, but the Kindle and the iPad have had a much more recent impact, both in terms of sales and notoriety."

Content with content

What it all comes down to, says Debatte, is content. He thinks manufacturers can put all the digital bells and whistles they like on devices but if the content isn't up to scratch, they won't have a hit on their hands.

"Good content speaks for itself. Of course there are a huge number of potential display options available with ebooks (text size, fonts etc.) that can really improve the reading experience, and there's certainly massive scope for enriched and enhanced content.

"But at the end of the day readers are interested in good content first and foremost: any enhancement has to come as a corollary to that."

And is there a future for the ad-supported ebook which Amazon currently provides in the US but is yet to make its way across the pond?

"People forget that paperbacks very often used to contain print adverts in some markets, and still do in others, so that is certainly a future model. As we've seen from the ad-supported Kindle, readers are happy to tolerate advertising if it does not obstruct their experience of the book."